He pauses. Searches carefully for his next
words. “The earth’s ecosystems are in decline. And that decline is exponential.
That’s why it’s so important to do everything we can to protect those natural
assets under our care. To then turn around and pat ourselves on the back
publicly for doing what we need to do — well, that kind of bugs me…”

That said, even the most committed
environmentalist must make deals with the devil to get some of those
life-changing initiatives to come true. “Our environmental conscience is
growing,” says DeJong. “It’s a journey. And it’s a journey up a long, steep,
grinding and difficult stairway. Given that we’re barely on the first steps of
that journey, I think it’s perfectly okay to encourage each other — at
least a little bit.”

And then he laughs. “I just hope it doesn’t
take six years to get the next ‘green’ project up and running,” he says. “After
all, if you take that stairway metaphor a little further, when it comes to
saving the environment, we’re walking when we should be running!”

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Last week,
W/B announced that the long-awaited run-of-river hydro project on Fitzsimmons
Creek had finally been given the go-ahead. What makes the project most
interesting to me is that at buildout, the energy produced will provide B.C.
Hydro with 33.5 gigawatt hours of power yearly, just about exactly what W/B
uses annually to run its operation.

This is great news. Moreover, it’s exactly the
kind of initiative that Whistlerites need to hear about to illustrate that
there is no single silver bullet that will solve all our carbon-burning issues.
Rather, it’s the sum of initiatives like the Fitz run-of-river (plus
geothermal, plus wind, plus solar plus whatever) that will make the whole
alternative power grid in the corridor greater — and more effective
— over the long run.